Consumer Watchdog is a (fiercely) independent consumer rights and advocacy organisation campaigning on behalf of the consumers of Botswana, helping them to know their rights and to stand up against abuse. Contact us at watchdog@bes.bw, call us on +267 3904582 or find us on Facebook by searching for Consumer Watchdog Botswana. Everything we do for the consumers of Botswana has always been and always will be entirely free.

Friday, 17 August 2012

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I have a friend who invested her money with an offshore company in Panama called Eurex Trade and sent them money amounting to P28,000 earning 5 percent interest daily. The money was sent through Western Union. So can you please help look into the matter?

I’ve commented on EurexTrade several times before. I firmly believe that this is a Ponzi scheme.

The clues are there if you look for them and if you look past the astonishing claims they make. Firstly they claim on their web site that you can earn “Up to 2.9% Daily”. Clearly your friend has been promised an even greater return. This is simply impossible. There is no investment scheme that actually makes that sort of profit. No, there isn’t. If there was don’t you think your bank, or the bankrupt Greek Government would be doing this?

It’s curious that EurexTrade don’t say how they could possibly make this sort of money. They explain their business using phrases like “short term, technical analysis based positions” and “longer term, global events driven long term profitable projections” and “in house developed trading algorithms” but that’s all rubbish, just a sequence of clever-sounding words. In fact all they are doing is taking the “investment” from you to pay something to the person who joined last week. Of course they’re keeping the majority of it themselves. That’s how a Ponzi scheme works.

Ironically there’s also a slight pyramid scheme element to them as well. They say that their “affiliate program pays up to 10% on deposits of referred members.” So you get paid for conning other victims, presumably your friends, colleagues, neighbors and relatives? That’s not a good way to make yourself popular, is it?

There is nothing good about EurexTrade. I urge you and everyone to avoid it before it collapses, just like every other Ponzi scheme inevitably does.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

On 1st August I called a cab company looking for a cab. They sent a guy but before I got into the cab I told him I only have P200, he told me he has change, so I got in the cab and started my journey but when we arrived at my place he realized that he doesn’t have enough change, he only had P200 notes.

I then decided that since its late he will drop my change in the morning. In the morning I waited for him to come & drop my change but he didn’t show up. I called him & he told me that he came to my place but had deleted my number by mistake and promised to drop my change when he goes to work around 7pm. I waited patiently but he didn’t show up then I called him he got angry and said he gave me back my change. I called the company that he works for but they told me to report him as it is out of their hands, a few minutes later he called me insulting me for calling the company he works for.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience.

I think you should go back to the cab company and explain that their driver was working for them that day so it's their responsibility to refund you. They should then deal with the driver themselves to claim the money back from him. Feel free to mention that you've asked us for advice, they're welcome to call me and discuss it if they want. You should also complain to them about his rudeness. You have a right to make a complaint against anyone, so long as you do it politely and constructively. The driver has NO right to phone you and abuse you for complaining that he stole your money.

Let me know if the cab company needs to be encouraged to do the decent thing?

Scam alert

There’s been another spurt of romance and shipping scams recently so be warned. If you’ve got to know someone online, perhaps from a dating site or Facebook and they offer to ship you a package of valuable goodies, then be careful. What will happen is that you’ll get an email supposedly from the shipping company saying that you have to pay them before you can receive the package. Meanwhile your online “friend” will disappear, claiming to be on a business trip so can’t be contacted to make the payment. You end up paying money via Western Union to a West African scammer. Your relationship with your online friend or lover was all part of the scam, designed to get that payment from you. Be warned.

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We support consumers in Botswana, educating them on their rights, helping them to fix problems and exposing scams. Email us at watchdog@bes.bw, or call on +267 3904582 or fax on +267 3911763. It's all free, you've nothing to lose!